She absolutely got what I was trying to relay in my work, and that gives me hope that the book will start to catch on. Yes, it is a quick read. I wanted to introduce the world before getting into the details. This first book is meant to tease you, because I am going to perform a trick on you, the reader. I say to you that I am going to make a rabbit vanish into the hat, but at the end, I’ll do much more than make him return again. Your mind will be left wondering, forced to look into yourself and find your own magic.

Here is an excerpt:

“There’s a bit of Poe and quite a bit of Lovecraft about the thing. A compelling plot, multiple inventive characters and situations and some rather gross moments (in a good way) made this one a winner. I’d definitely recommend it to fans of dark fantasy.

Devlin itself put me in mind of a grown up version of Hogsmeade. Just because you didn’t get your letter from Hogwarts doesn’t mean you can’t be Awakened to your particular ability–that can happen at any time in your life. So take heart!

The events of the book take place in the autumn and there’s magic and the lifting of the veil in a very big way so it’s the perfect book for this time of year.” – V.L. Craven

But wait, there’s more! Starting next week, I will start posting a series of articles about the philosophy behind the Waking Dream, but it much more than that. I am going to create a framework that will merge science and religion, creating a new philosophical framework, and drawing from the work of Dr. Erik Andrulis‘, of Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, scientifically irrefutable “Theory of the Origin, Evolution, and Nature of Life” — which I urge you to read, both his theory and his blog. I have entitled this new philosophy as Mism, the Merging of all isms.

And just one more thing, my book will be reviewed and I will be interviewed on Elaine Charles’ radio show about the Waking Dream and Devlin the weekend of October 27. Details will come as to times and what local station you can hear it, and links to the podcast.

Thank you all for helping me write this book, and make the Waking Dream a success. It is for you, because we need a little magic and hope in this world gone awry.

I wanted to end this series with a positive message, and discuss the only thing that will fix our world, truly — Love and Compassion.

We all talk about love and compassion. Love is a word that is often thrown around with little earnestness. Do we do it because we feel obligated because someone else has said it? Do we actually really mean it? We should mean it, or not say it at all, because it can give the wrong impression, or make us appear as if we are just parrots.

How about compassion? Do we really empathize with others and show them compassion? In today’s world, so many people are hurting. This is just the reality we live in right now. For instance, here are many more homeless people in the world as a result of all the financial strife our country is facing. I see at least 10 of them every day. It’s hard to know which one’s are for real and which ones are just looking for drug money, or are scammers. This is where you have to listen to your inner self. It is a very difficult thing to learn how to tell those who are earnest, from those who are not. But if you have spare change, perhaps you should just give it away, no matter what. In the end, it’s not our place to judge one another. We must judge ourselves by our own actions. It really doesn’t matter if you give money to someone who doesn’t really need it, because it grows us all as people. We shed this judgmental aspect of our being, and foster compassion in our hearts.

I don’t want to talk about all the bad things going on in the world — you don’t need me to remind you of that. My simple message today is that we have to learn to be more compassionate and understanding to those around us. I know that we are all individuals, but as I’ve said we are all One. And when one of us is hurting, sometimes it just takes a kind word or gesture to completely change someone’s mood. And it also means we have to pay attention to our fellow humans. Some people hide their hurt deep inside. I personally am very observant of the people close to me — family, friends, co-workers. It doesn’t help to pry. But it does help to just show the person you care, and be earnest about it. When you say you are sorry to someone because they are hurting,grieving, or depressed, say it because you mean it, because they can tell by the tone of your voice whether you are earnest. If you can’t be earnest, don’t say anything at all, because that will just make things worse. Trust me, I know how I feel when someone says, “Aww…I’m so sorry.” But i can tell they don’t mean it, and that just makes me feel more alone and hurt.

So I am ending this series on Exploring Humanity, and next week I intend to move onto a less serious topic — The Universe. Feel free to suggest something to me. I’m always open to exploring new ideas.

But before I go, I just wanted to sum this series up by saying that the only true way we can change our world, is by first changing ourselves. These short essays were not intended to lecture you, or admonish you. There are many good people in the world, and everyone has good in them — we must believe that though finding the good may take more digging in some, than in others. Reach out to one another, befriend people and get out of your house. Enjoy this wonderful world. Revel in the company of friends and family. Find happiness in each and every day, even if it’s just for a moment. It has been a very rough ride for everyone on the planet for the last decade. But we can change it. I believe this and I hope you do too. If we can truly love one another, then we can accomplish anything.

So I leave you with this final question: Have you reached out and told someone you care about them today — and meant it?

This is the first part in a new series of blog posts. In my previous series, How to Change the World, I talked about just basic things we could do to change the world and make it a better place. As I read through the series, and in observing people on Twitter and Facebook, I realized we need to explore ourselves before we can even grasp the concept of fixing the things around us. Today, I will begin with fear, as that seems to be the root of all the problems we face in our world.

Fear is one of the most basic human emotions. It is the thing that keeps us alive, allowing us to avoid perceived dangers, and causes us to withdraw, hide, or run. If you just watch one hour of news, its easy to see that there are so many things can be afraid of. But the question arises as to whether we should be afraid. There is a fundamental statement which we must all remember — we will all die one day. There is no avoiding it — nor should we. And if we spend our lives worrying about it, we never have time to enjoy what time we do have.

My friend just died, as you may have read in my previous post. He was only 48, only 5 years older than myself. Two years ago, my Grams died, and she was 92. When I was 1-year-old, my twin brother and sister died after only one day. There is no pattern, there is no way to predict it, and there is certainly no way to avoid it. All of us have been exposed to death at some point in our lives. A friend, a pet, a parent, a sibling, a spouse, a child. It happens. And each time we do experience it, it fans a burning fear in our chest, wondering if we, or someone else around us, will be next.

If you take a long hard look at what you fear, you’ll probably find that it all leads back to avoiding harm and death. None of us like to suffer or be in pain, and we certainly don’t look forward to death. I know many people who live in constant fear, and I can tell you from my perspective, they are not at all happy. It’s not easy to release fears, especially the deep seeded ones.

I am here to tell you that you can shed your fear. I used to live with a legion of fears, and then one day, I decided I would not allow it to control me anymore. I don’t know what the catalyst was. I just woke up one day and realized that I was reclusive, withdrawn and aggravated with the world. I just stayed with my family and my small circle of friends. It’s easy to become disheartened. We turn on the news and someone is killing someone, or we are involved in war, or we see horrible acts of violence against our fellow humans. It’s okay to be concerned and careful. But fear eats away at the soul.

It was only when I shed my fear that I was able to live. And when we shed our fears, and realize that its unnecessary and unavoidable, we can start to look at the world around us with a renewed sense of hope and do it. Changing the world begins with changing ourselves and humanity. Look at those around you, learn from their fears in order to address your own.

So tonight I leave you with this one question: What do you fear the most and why?

Don’t just read it, think about it and answer. Sometimes speaking it out loud, will allow you to confront it and end it.

In my last post I discussed shedding our fears and learning to be friends. And I am lucky that I have friends in my life that support the things I do.

Today I am going to discuss living in the moment, because in order for us to truly change the world is to change our own lives. The society is the reflection of each individual, and if the majority of us are not able to love ourselves, or our lives, then we cannot love each other. Living in the moment allows us to shed our petty pursuits, and focus on what is happening right now. This is not to say that we shouldn’t do some sort of planning for the future, but if we become obsessed with looking forward, we forget to look around. Life is not about acquiring things. Life is about acquiring those special moments that make us happy, and these moments will carry you happily along through your life. Life will not always be good moments, but every moment has a little lesson wrapped up inside.

I have many moments that I remember going back to my early childhood. I have some good and some bad. But I’ve learned my lessons from the bad moments, and then I let them go. The bad things that happen to us, if we hold onto them too long, or think about them constantly, form a cancer on the soul, making it harder and harder to for us to have good moments. We don’t know what will truly happen from moment to moment. Anything in the universe is possible, though some things are more probable than others. You cannot know that you will be here tomorrow, so you should do everything in your power to savor today.

I’ve had more good moments than bad when I finally realized all of these things. There are surely bad moments, but I leave those behind, adjusting my path, and create a better moment. Our world has had terrible moments, that we must learn from and move forward. We’ve had and are in wars. We’ve done terrible things to entire races of people. We’ve done terrible things to the planet. We must learn from every single one of these moments, then let them go. Hopefully those moments haven’t set a path from which we cannot stray. We must move forward, and we just haven’t done so.

I’ll share a recent moment in the form of a poem, because it made me smile and shows the value of my previous post.

Meeting an Imp!

I have a friend, who stands on his head and thinks on his feet,
who understands what I’ve said, and that’s quite a feat!
He created and wrote a lovely, heartfelt poem,
about the twitter friends with whom he’s played.
Though I’d only just met his other friends and him,
I was shocked and honored that I’d been included.
Many wonderful moments captured forever in rhyme,
and now it is published for the entire world to see.
His lyrics are now embedded in the history of time
read it and see how amazing the world can be.

You can read his poem at the following link. Give him a shout on twitter if you get a moment. Friends — by Gongle Shanks

So I’ll leave you with this question, so it’s not always me talking. A dialogue must be started so we can all join in and change the world.

Can you tell me a single brief moment that changed your life for the better?

I’ve been reading the Libellus pretty hard now. And I have to tell you, that there are some unnecessary things we allow to exist in our Waking Dream.

What does it mean to Coexist? Well, from what I can gather, it means that we have to be mutually respectful to each person’s pursuit of the Dream. If you are encroaching on another person’s joy or Dream, you are not being respectful. But it is much more than that.

We have to stop with the categorization of people by physical characteristics, beliefs or pursuits. At the end of the day, what does skin color have to do with anything? What does it matter what country you come from or were born in? What differences does it matter which sexual orientation you chose? These preconceived separations are products of the False Teachers, those who want to splinter us for their own seditious aims — except we are rebelling against one another rather than those who are putting these crazy thoughts in our heads. And though Sleepers and Dreamers have different roles in the universe, they are the same and should treat each other with mutual respect — though the Sleepers don’t know that they are Sleepers.

We have mired ourselves down with labeling people — that should not ever be something we waste our time with. Skin color is a function of climate. Culture is a function social influence. Sexuality is a predisposition, just as some people like blue and others prefer red. But who among us truly has the right to tell anyone what they should and should not like?

Religion is the most difficult and polarizing aspects of human interactions. And it has been the cause of many conflicts over the course of human history. This is due to the result that each religion believes that theirs is correct, but, they can’t possibly know the mind of the Creator. And that is where we have fallen on many occasions. So many wars and needless deaths in the name of the Creator. Is this truly what he wants?

I guess, what I’m trying to say, is that we waste a lot of time trying defending our differences when all we need to be doing is getting along and trying to work on creating a Dream that works for us all. And now is the time to start paying attention, because in case you hadn’t noticed, things are getting crazy out there. We must stop judging one another, or trying to put constraints on one another. You are ultimately responsible for your actions, and your actions alone. Treat someone else’s pursuits with respect, and respect will ultimately be returned.

It has been a very long time since I’ve had the time to blog. After my spaces account was shut down, I hadn’t had time to set up a new wordpress blog, and get back into the zen of blogifying my brain. But today, I feel compelled to put out my thoughts for everyone else to digest.

As 2012 approaches, every crack pot in the world has come up with some sort of vision, theory, justification, math equation, quantification and pontification about the end of the world, (and/or the Mayan prophecy). From the dawn of humankind, we have prophesied some sort of end to our existence here on planet Earth, but for what reason? Sure, the sun will eventually burn out, first swelling into a red giant, consuming most of the inner planets, then deflating into a glistening white dwarf. And yes, this will most certainly kill everyone still living on the planet. And considering we’ve cut all our spending on space exploration, for the time being, we won’t be finding any methods of leaving the planet any time soon – so we are left with our fears of annihilation.

We have become arrogant on so many levels — too arrogant considering how fragile we are, and how dangerous the universe is. At any moment, the sun can (and has before) unleash a violent flare that could easily change the course of our history. There are so many ways to die in the universe, so many things we can’t ever prevent. We scurry from place to place, most of us blissfully ignorant of the fact that at any moment, without warning, it can all end. Remember the dinosaurs? One day they’re happily eating leaves (and each other), then *BAM!* they are consumed in a fireball that engulfs the planet, nearly extinguishing all life on the planet. Nearly.

I was amused and angered by the ravings of Harold Camping and his disastrous miscalculation of the end of the world, which he had convinced his followers was May 21, 2011. But as you know, the end did not come and many people left their homes, families and jobs to obey the ravings of a madman turned prophet, who had already been wrong before (not once but twice!). Despite this failure, he still persists in his message that the “Spiritual Rapture” had occurred, and the physical rapture was on October 21st, 2011 — which we also know, has come and gone. He’s already taken all his followers money and misled them to the point where they must live the rest of their lives, knowing they were misled by a fool. And so many fools have come before him.

Is there an apocalypse coming? Well what exactly is an apocalypse? If you take the literal definition, it means “total destruction”. If you take the biblical meaning, it is “a disclosure of something hidden from the majority of mankind in an era dominated by falsehood and misconception” or “lifting the veil”. So regardless of how we define it, an apocalypse has happened many times before and will happened again. But it doesn’t have to be something occult or paranormal, such as the wrath of god, or the zombie plague. It will probably be something fairly normal, yet greatly disregarded – like the sun, an asteroid, or the collapse of the technology infrastructure.

So why am I babbling about all this? Because there is a simple fact we all forget — it can all end at any moment. Which means you can only be sure of the moment you’re in, the moment you are living in right now. One of the greatest lessons I’ve learned in my life thus far is the Zen idea of enjoying “Right Now”. I am just as guilty as everyone when it comes to this. We are always looking to the horizon, instead of right around us. Sure, we must plan to some extent, but to what extent?

I don’t want to look forward to the end of the world. I don’t want to worry about an apocalypse. I want to live my life living happily in each moment. And that is probably one of the most difficult things we as humans have to learn. Living in each moment, when I actually get to do it, is really quite awesome. I get glimpses of it in my life, but it is not something I can sustain on a regular basis. I am working towards it, but we all have to work towards it. If we all worked together on living for now, we wouldn’t have the problems we have today that threaten our world, and make some people long for the end. [I’ve got my money on Zombie Apocalypse Scenario though]

So the question ultimately becomes, “If it isn’t fun, then why are we doing it?”